I’ve just started a second blog called Getting Healthy. (It only has two posts so far.) I decided to create this blog because I need to make some major changes in my life. By focusing on my overall health–emotional, physical, and spiritual–I hope my life will improve. I’ve finally decided to start following my blog motto: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” JK Rowling is a wise woman and I need to do exactly that–live rather than just survive!

This blog is mostly for me to document my progress and remember the things that have inspired and helped me become healthier. But, I hope it can help anyone else who may be feeling or going through the same things I am.

Check it out if you’d like to follow my progress.

Update: I have combined the blogs together. So, now all the posts that were on my Getting Healthy blog are on this blog.

The first day of school is Monday. When I had three weeks until school started, I came up with a list of five things I needed to get done. I only accomplished one of them, albeit the most important. Oopsies.

1. Finish watching LOST.
2. Conquer Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
3. Finish reading The Book Thief.
4. Reread Shiver and Linger, so I can read Forever.
5. Gather my sanity to get me through the next few months.

Now that I’m out of time, I don’t really care about the first four items. I’ll still do them, just during the semester instead of before. I’ll watch LOST over the weekends. After all, I only have 16 episodes left. And, I can conquer Zelda one week or another. After I get out of my reading slump, I’ll accomplish 3 and 4.

I had one thing that wasn’t on my to do list that I still had to accomplish. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to go back to school at all. BYU, the school I attend, doesn’t allow extreme hairstyles, which is anyone’s guess, but I was fairly certain my current color wouldn’t be allowed. Today, I remedied that and had my niece Carlee redye my hair.

Although I miss the purple … a lot, I really like the new color. I also love that it’s still a bit edgy, but within BYU’s rules. (The red isn’t quite as noticeable when it’s not in the sun.)

At this point, after I put all my supplies together tomorrow, I’m ready to go back and I’m quite excited about it!

On Friday night, Corey and I went to our friends’, the Vigues, place to watch their kids so Ali could go out with Tyler for her birthday.  After they came home and the kids were put to bed, somehow we got on the subject of personalities.  Tyler has a book, Please Understand Me II, that uses the Myer-Briggs personality test to determine your personality type.  He tested Corey and me to see what we were.

Corey’s an ENTP–Extroverted Intuitive Thinking Perceiving.  When we read the description, it was him to a T.  There wasn’t a single thing written about that personality type that contradicted with Corey.  There was a lot of insightful laughing to be had.

At first, I was a cross between an INFJ (Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging) and an ISFJ (Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging).  They’re known as the Protector and Counselor respectively.  A lot of the things said about those types were accurate, but there were a lot of things that weren’t.  We figured that a good mix of both described me pretty well.  But, it got me thinking.  I tend to answer these questions with how I want to be or how I perceive myself to be, which isn’t how I actually am in most cases.  I decided to take the test again since Tyler let me borrow his book.

The second time around, I came out as an ESFJ–Extroverted Sensing Feeling Judging–also known as the Provider.  I was leery about this assessment because I don’t see myself as extroverted.  However, after reading about this personality, I realized that I really am extroverted, but I’m extremely self-conscious, as most ESFJs are, which makes me seem introverted.

Here are some things about my personality type, and if you know me well enough, you’ll see why this is a better fit than the other two.

• Personable and talkative, bouncing from subject to subject
• Restless if isolated from people (enjoy socializing and entertaining)
• Fascination in gossip with local people or celebrities
• Restive when talking about philosophic or scientific abstractions
• Listen to acknowledged authorities on abstract matters and rely on officially sanctioned views to form their opinions and attitudes
• Nostalgic and recount past experiences often
• Pessimistic, expressing doom and gloom that’s sometimes contagious
• Highly sensitive (easily wounded), but not reluctant to express emotional reactions
• Quick to like and dislike, putting those they admire on pedestals and come down hard on the people and issues they don’t like
• Have difficulty recognizing the shortcomings of loved ones
• Conscious of appearances and others’ opinions of themselves
• Crushed by personal criticism
• Fond-hearted, sentimental, and observe birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays fervently
• Take things in via their five senses in a literal, concrete fashion
• Need approval from others to feel good about themselves
• Weigh their values and morals against the world around them, rather than against an internal value system
• Natural tendency to want to control their environment
• Warmly interested in others
• Prefer to do things in the established way, rather than venturing into uncharted territory
• Controlling, overly sensitive, and imagine bad intentions when there are none
• Warm, sympathetic, helpful, cooperative, tactful, down-to-earth, practical, thorough, consistent, organized, enthusiastic, and energetic

I was sent this e-mail today from my friend Cami and I’ve decided to post it on my blog for all to read.

1. Do you like blue cheese? No, that’s gross!
2. Have you ever smoked? No
3. Do you own a gun? No
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? I don’t add anything to my drink, but I order a grape slush.
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Depends on which doctor it is…
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I like corn dogs, but I don’t like hot dogs because they make me sick to my stomach.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? The Nightmare Before Christmas
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Milk
9. Can you do pushups? No
10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? Earrings
11. Favorite hobby? I have lots of them, but I guess reading and maintaining my blog are my favorites right now.
12. Do you have ADD? What was I doing? Just kidding, no I don’t. I’m more OCD than ADD.
13. What’s one trait you hate about yourself? Self-destructive tendencies, meaning I blame myself for everything and I always talk down to myself.
14. Middle name: Elyse
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: I’m tired, I’m bored, and I wish people would look at and comment on my blog more.
16. Name 3 things you bought yesterday? Muffin, haircut, and hair dye
17. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water, Gatorade, and milk
18. Current worry? Family drama that may ensue this weekend
19. Current hate right now? Microwave in my work’s break room. I bruised my finger on it.
20. Favorite place to be? With my family and/or friends
21. How did you bring in the New Year? Playing games and watching Michael Jackson music videos at Becky’s awesome New Year’s party!
22. Where would you like to go? Japan
23. Name three people you want to do this on their blog? Amber, Megan, and Meagan
24. Do you own slippers? Yes, but I rarely wear them.
25. What song makes you happy? “The Elephant Love Medley” from Moulin Rouge
26. What year would you go back in time to? 1993 to prevent a certain event from happening to me, or to resolve the issue the way it should’ve been resolved in the beginning.
27. Can you whistle? I try, but it’s sad.
28. Favorite color? Lavender
29. Would you be a pirate? As long as Captain Jack Sparrow were my captain
30. What songs do you sing in the shower? There are three songs that get into my head the most often and that’s what I would sing. The songs are the theme from Disney’s Robin Hood, “Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles, and the Oscar Meyer wiener song sung about my Darth Tater Mr. Potato Head. It goes like this: “My potato has a first name. It’s D A R T H. My potato has a second name. It’s T A T E R. I like to play with him every day and if you ask me why I’ll say: ’cause my Darth Tater has his way with P O T A T O yay!”
31. Favorite girl’s name: Mackenna
32. Favorite boy’s name: Nethaneel
33. What’s in your pocket right now? Lint
34. Last thing that made you laugh? Some screenshots of made up, but plausible, Windows Vista errors
35. Last thing that made you cry? Someone telling me that I hurt some people’s feelings by something I had posted, trying to be funny not mean, on one of the online forums I belong to.
36. Worst injury you’ve ever had? A really, really bad sunburn
37. Do you love where you live? Yes
38. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2
39. Who is your loudest friend? Besides myself, Danylle, Amber, or Lauren; but, I like loud people because they’re usually more fun!
40. How many dogs do you have? None, but I have 3 cats.
41. Does someone have a crush on you? I have no idea.
42. What is your favorite book(s)? (You asked for it)–Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Host, Dune, Dragon Prince, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass, You Are Special, and Fox in Socks
43. What is your favorite candy? Strawberry Twizzlers or Nerds
44. Favorite Sports Team(s)? I despise sports.
45. Your favorite meal? Anything Japanese, especially sushi!
46. What were you doing 12 AM last night? Sleeping in the car while Corey was driving home from Aymee and Dave’s.
47. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Do I have to wake up now?
48. Do you have any odd habits? Yes, but I’m not divulging them to anyone!

My other sisters and brother are probably going to be jealous or sad because of this post. However, honestly, I think LeAnn, other than a couple of my nieces and my in-laws, is the only one in my family that reads my blog. When I was writing the post 101 Facts About Me, I had a hard time coming up with things and realized (now) how much I can’t sum up my life in 101 things and how much I forgot or overlooked. A few of those things, in particular, are regarding LeAnn. I decided to come up with a non-exhaustive list just about her and me.

1. Whenever I had a nightmare or got scared at night, LeAnn always let me sleep with her.
2. Some of my favorite memories when I was younger include hanging out with LeAnn. We used to go to the mall and movies together, have fun out in the yard, go to the roller skating rink, and lots of other things too.
3. When I was six or seven years old, LeAnn taught me how to play the top hand of “Für Elise.”
4. When I was about seven or eight years old, I was running down the hall in my house and LeAnn tripped me. (She didn’t do it to hurt me; it was a “just for fun” kind of thing.) After I tripped, I went sailing into the corner of a wall. Amazingly, I wasn’t hurt. The wall, however, wasn’t as lucky. There was a huge dent in it. We joke that I have a really hard head.
5. LeAnn joined the Marines when I was in the 4th grade and when she was sworn in, I was also unofficially sworn into the Marines because I wanted to be like her.
6. When I was about nine or ten years old, my childhood cat, Gus, was sleeping on LeAnn’s bed. She told me to leave him there while she used the restroom because she wanted to sleep with him.  But, I did too. While she was in the restroom, I snuck Gus out of her room and into my bed and hid him under my covers while I pretended to be asleep. She went back down to her bedroom and noticed he was gone. I heard her yell, “JENNI!” She came up to my room and asked me if I took him. I told her no. Even though I don’t think she believed me, she just walked away and let me sleep with him.
7. When I was a junior in high school, LeAnn lived with us for a few months because her husband was overseas in Okinawa. She, my mom, and I were talking in the living room when she decided to attack me with a newspaper. I got newspaper print all over my face.
8. One of my favorites memories is staying up with LeAnn to watch Quantum Leap when she was living with us in my junior year.

My niece Amber did this on her blog and I thought it’d be fun to do. Here are 101 facts you may or may not know about me:

1. I was born exactly one month earlier than my due date.
2. If I would’ve been born on my due date, my cousin Pete and I would have the same birthday.
3. I’m in love with my birthday and, in my opinion, it’s the most important day of the year.
4. My birthday has been on Easter twice during my life.
5. My 17th birthday was the day of the Oklahoma City bombing. It was also the day Corey went into the MTC, which he served in Oklahoma.
6. My birthday has had more disasters/historical events occur on it than any other day, a fact that I’m very proud of. (If you don’t believe me, look it up on Wikipedia.)
7. I’m left-handed, a trait I get from my maternal grandfather. Aymee and Kilee, my niece and great-niece, are also left-handed.
8. Corey’s the first and only person I’ve ever kissed.
9. I’m the youngest of seven children and my closest sibling in age is eight and a half years older than me.
10. My four oldest siblings are old enough to be my parents. (My brother’s a stretch since he’s only 16 years older than me, but it’s still possible.)
11. I’m closer, relationship-wise, to my nieces and nephews than I am to my sisters and brother.
12. I became an aunt when I was three years old and a great-aunt when I was 21 years old.
13. I only have two cousins that are my age. The rest of my cousins are old enough to be my parents.
14. Ironically, because I’m the youngest, I was the first child to demand affection from my parents. My siblings and I knew our parents loved us, but they grew up in non-affectionate homes. My siblings were content with my parents not being affectionate, but I always asked for kisses, hugs, and to be told I was loved. (I still like receiving kisses on my forehead from my dad and hugs from my mom.)
15. I never had a curfew when I was growing up. My parents never had to worry about me because I was such a goody two-shoes.
16. I’ve only been grounded once in my life. (I don’t remember why.)
17. My dad wanted to name me AnnaLisa so my name would be similar to my paternal grandmother’s name, Annabelle.
18. I was given an Indian name by my paternal grandfather.  It’s Singing Bird.
19. My oldest sister, Shari, has given everyone in the family a nickname. My nickname is Porkus, which I thoroughly detest!
20. I’ve collected names since I was 12 years old.  I have over 5,000 girl names and over 1,000 boy names.
21. My favorite girl’s name is MacKenna Elyse.
22. My childhood cat, Gus, was named after my paternal great-grandfather Johann Gustav.
23. When I was little, I pushed Gus around the house in my PlaySkool shopping cart.
24. I was in a Spanish immersion program for four years at my elementary school. Whenever I’d bring my homework home, I’d have to translate it into English before my parents could help me.
25. Because I had the opportunity to learn Spanish at such a young age, I have a love for learning languages. I took one year of Russian and four years of French in high school. I took three years of Japanese in college. I’m not fluent in any of them, but I speak and understand Spanish the best. (I suppose I just need to practice more.) Japanese is my favorite language.
26. For extra credit in my French class, I ate escargot. For those of you who don’t know what escargot is, it’s snail. As Timon and Pumbaa, from the Lion King, would say, “Slimy yet satisfying.”
27. When I was in the eighth grade, I wrote a short story for my English class called “101 Dill Pickles” with Evel Knievel as the bad guy. (We had to write a parody of a fairy tale.)
28. Other than languages, my favorite subject in school was math.
29. I had an algebra theorem named after me when I was a sophomore in high school.
30. I have a lifelong dream to go to Japan.
31. Sushi is my favorite food.
32. I don’t like sugar cereal. In fact, my favorite cereals are Shredded Wheat, Crispix, and Rice Crispies.
33. My favorite ice cream flavor is Pink Bubble Gum.
34. One of my favorite childhood memories is riding my bike to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream cone with my dad.
35. My left front tooth was missing for four years. It was pulled out when I was three years old because it was nothing but a giant cavity and it didn’t erupt again until I was in the second grade. The tooth only erupted because I tripped and fell on Aymee’s head, which cut my gum and allowed it to come through.

    

36. I played with Barbies and dolls until I was in the ninth grade.
37. Another one of my favorite childhood memories is playing Barbies with my nieces Amber and Megan.
38. I once convinced my niece Kati to trade dolls with me because mine had a “scar” on it and hers didn’t.
39. I won a $100 bet against my dad when I was 14 years old because I knew the Colossus (a ride at Lagoon, an amusement park in Utah) had a lap restraint and not a shoulder restraint.
40. I wrenched my neck when I was nine years old on the Colossus and had to wear a neck brace for a couple of weeks.
41. I was 12 years old the first time I went to Disneyland.
42. I have a picture of me in a Daisy Duck hat and Corey has a picture of him in a Donald Duck hat.  It must have been fate!

    

43. I love amusement parks and I’ve been to Lagoon, Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farms, Magic Mountain, Universal Studios (California), SeaWorld (San Diego), Six Flags (Dallas), Six Flags (St. Louis), Busch Gardens (Tampa), and Disney World.
44. Whenever I was sick as a teenager, I’d watch all three original Star Wars movies or all three Indiana Jones movies.
45. I’ve been a Star Wars fan for longer than I can remember because Shari’s a huge Star Wars fan and I guess you can say it was sort of ingrained in me.
46. The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite episode in the Star Wars Saga, with The Revenge of the Sith being a close second.
47. I slept on the sidewalk for nine hours while I waited in line to get tickets for the special edition of A New Hope.
48. I waited in line for eight and a half hours to be the first person in the theater to see The Revenge of the Sith.
49. I get really mad when people say the last three Star Wars movies sucked or that Hayden Christensen was poorly cast as Anakin Skywalker.
50. I’ve watched Clue so many times I can quote it without even thinking about it. “What do you mean murrrr-derrrr?”
51. Another one of my favorite childhood memories is watching Clue with my nieces Cami and Kati.
52. My favorite TV shows include Charmed, 24, and Bones. (I get a lot more sleep thanks to my TiVo.)
53. Ewan McGregor is my favorite actor. I like listening to him speak because of his Scottish accent. I think his singing voice is amazing! And, most importantly, I think he’s extremely hot!
54. I have autographs from John Williams, Michael Crawford, and Debbie Reynolds.
55. John Williams is my favorite composer.
56. My favorite singer of all time is Michael Crawford, the original phantom in The Phantom of the Opera.
57. I saw Michael Crawford in EFX for my 18th birthday. He was absolutely amazing!
58. I met Debbie Reynolds at her hotel and casino in Las Vegas.
59. Music played in the minor key is usually my favorite.
60. “Für Elise” is my favorite classical composition because it’s basically my name–Jennifer Elyse. And, it’s really the only classical composition I can play on the piano.
61. I played the oboe for a year in junior high school and I’d like to take it up again.
62. Whenever I’m sad, I listen to music. I especially like listening to LDS hymns or other LDS music.
63. My three favorite bands are Linkin’ Park, System of a Down, and Green Day.
64. When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with the New Kids on the Block.
65. In the seventh grade, I had my hair cut and permed to look like Joey McIntyre from the New Kids on the Block.
66. I used to hate reading so much I’d buy cliff notes to help me pass my literature classes. However, surprisingly, I enjoyed reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
67. I can count the number of books I read in high school on one hand because I avoided reading at all costs if I could. I read The Scarlet Letter (enjoyed), Where Are the Children? (enjoyed), Dune (one of my favorite books), Fahrenheit 451 (disliked), and Summer of My German Soldier (enjoyed).
68. Because of Harry Potter, I started to read, which lead me to the Twilight series.  Because of the Twilight series, my outlook on reading has done a complete 180. Reading’s one of my favorite pastimes now.  Although, I still don’t read as often as I’d like. I haven’t really expanded my horizons outside of books written by Stephenie Meyer, JK Rowling, or Mary Higgins Clark yet either. I plan to remedy this soon.
69. My favorite books include the Harry Potter series, the Twilight series, and Dune.
70. I’m a perfectionist and I’m very anal when it comes to projects I work on. I couldn’t just write this list in the order I came up with the items; I had to organize everything by subject.
71. I’ll edit my blog posts, as well as my posts on the Twilight Lexicon, four or five times (or as many times as necessary) because of typos.
72. Marvin the Martian is my favorite cartoon character.
73. I can talk like Marvin the Martian. Just ask me to say, “Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!”
74. I love talking in accents. Amusingly, my favorite accent to talk in, if you will, is my deaf accent.  I don’t do it very often anymore because I don’t want to offend anyone.
75. When I was nine years old, my sister Caryn and I were waiting for my mom to get off work. Caryn started talking to one of my mom’s co-workers, someone who Caryn thought was cute and had a little crush on. When the guy asked me my name, I acted as if I were deaf and started to sign my name and talk in my deaf accent. Caryn was really embarrassed.
76. I love animals! Once I meet an animal, I’m immediately attached to it because I anthropomorphize them. (Corey likes to say that Elmyra from Tiny Toon Adventures was drawn after me.)
77. I cry more when an animal dies than when a person dies in movies or books. Case in point, Hedwig’s and Dobby’s deaths were the hardest for me in Deathly Hallows.
78. Another one of my favorite childhood memories is feeding the ducks in the pond at Weber State University with my dad.
79. I’m deathly afraid of spiders.
80. Because of my fear of spiders, I’ll never go to Australia because the Funnel Spider is from there.
81. Because of my fear of spiders, I’ll probably never go to Africa or South America either.
82. I love playing games whether they’re board games, gaming system games, computer games, or active games (e.g. tag, capture the flag).
83. My favorite gaming system is Nintendo because it has the fun, non-realistic, not-too-violent games like Mario and Zelda.
84. All Zelda games are my favorite Nintendo games.
85. My favorite board games include Settlers of Catan with all expansions, Bonkers, Ticket to Ride, Monopoly, Clue, and Risk.
86. My favorite color is light amethyst.
87. My favorite color combination is light amethyst, lime green, and blue.
88. I love to roller skate and I hate to roller blade.
89. I love to ride bicycles.
90. I love the water and I love going to water parks.
91. When I was eight years old, I fell in a canal and would’ve drowned if Jennie, my best friend at the time, hadn’t jumped in to save me.
92. I love spending time with Jack and Sheridan, my friends’ children. They’re my surrogate nephew and niece.
93. I’m the unofficial godmother of Owen and Sadie, my friend’s children.
94. I write training manuals.
95. I’ve always wanted to write a novel.
96. Halloween’s my favorite holiday because I love to dress up.
97. For three years in a row (nine to 11 years old), I had a recurring dream on Halloween night. The dream was similar to “Night on Bald Mountain” in Disney’s Fantasia.
98. For Halloween one year, I dressed up as Bubbles from the PowerPuff Girls.
99. For another Halloween, I dressed up as a butterfly caught in a web.
100. When I was younger, I’d stay up every Christmas Eve and wait for my parents to put out my stocking and the presents from “Santa.” Once my parents went to bed, I’d go through my stocking.  I learned to do this from my sister LeAnn.
101. I’ve never received a speeding ticket.